Town officials last week approved three contracts for the installation of a widely anticipated new outdoor fitness area at Waveny this summer, replacing existing equipment that’s broken down.
The Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting Tuesday voted 3-0 in favor of the contracts, a total of $96,894.
The Gladiator
The new fitness area will be located just east of the existing one, making room for a brand-new children’s playground area that’s planned for the same site—the grassy, tree-strewn island that abuts the Orchard Field parking lot at the park.
Parks and Recreation Director John Howe told the selectmen that local landscape architect Keith Simpson is drawing up a design that includes trees and plants to clearly cordon off the two areas.
“And even though we’re using colors that are neutral in nature—the tans and browns and grays—we still want to shield it off,” Howe said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconferencel
Referring to the playground committee’s plan to have the playground areas further off the main road through Waveny, he said, “And we don’t want people stopping on the edge of the road, dropping off kids or anything like that.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contracts: GameTime MRC Equipment ($50,544 for “The Gladiator” fitness equipment), $20,315 for Pat Corsetti Inc. for installation and $26,035 for Rubber Recycle for a tan Poured-In-Place surface, according to Ryan Restivo, assistant parks superintendent in the Department of Public Works.
The playground itself—a project led by a volunteer committee that includes Monica Capela, Hilary Ormond and Lauren Connolly Nussbaum—will be finalized and installed following community input and fundraising.
The selectmen asked Howe and Restivo whether plans showed a new path leading to the new areas (yes, asphalt and bricks for a legacy walkway to the playground portion), whether the equipment is special needs appropriate (yes), when the existing equipment will be removed (when The Gladiator is installed) and whether the Poured-In-Place surface for the playground could be installed at the same time (no).
Murphy Carroll asked about fencing off the fitness area so that children don’t mistake it, as they do now, for a playground.
“I was worried about younger kids, jumping on this stuff because that’s what young kids do,” she said.
Restivo said in response, “We’re going to have a guide rail going up the pathway to border the fitness area and the playground. That whole entire site will be bordered by a guide rail. And then the fitness area is separate from the playground. So there’ll be a distance between the two, which a younger kid will be on the playground as opposed to the fitness area, because it’s that separate area, separate walkways.”
Howe said that officials haven’t yet decided “how much fence we’re going to put around the new playground area and fitness area.”
“With them being separate areas, we think the kids will go to what is age appropriate for them and that’s part of the problem we have right now, is the fitness equipment is used as a playground and unfortunately it’s not playground equipment,” he said. “It’s truly fitness equipment.”
Would be great to have a pull-up bar with clearance for muscle ups, rings, etc.
Looks fun but more of another playground than fitness. Funny that prisons get better fitness equipment than the taxpayers that pay for them. They get actual outdoor adult strength training facilities instead of lowest common denominator toys.
Do you have a favorite prison fitness area and how far would you go to become a member?
In theory I prefer the hardcore supermax yards over the bougie CT/Club Fed camps with pickle ball, but in practice neither has been able to catch me (yet).